Originally Posted by jkl626

I beleive that certain doctors do their preferred surgery or procedures on patients just to support their theory or research. Dr. Sanders research shows he believes that many cases of TOS are actually pec minor syndrome and therefore he was one of the only dr's to test the pec minor and did many pec minor tenomoties to prove his theory. I am assuming his protege Dr. Annest is following in his footsteps. Not to say that many MIGHT have pec minor involvement but not everyone especially if you have a cervical rib. It is also true that Dr. Thompson has just come up with 2 very beleivable studies that show that PM is the culprit in many cases but he also does other surgeries based on what he thinks the patient needs.And it looks like he does the most at once of any surgeons.

Dr Ahn is another one that recommends the angiogram and angioplasty to all his patients as his theory is he can tell where the compression is coming from.It may be a good test but he is the only one doing this for diagnostic purposes. With TOS everyone is different so a cookie cutter approach will never work. All the surgeons in L.A. only do the Transaxial Rib resection for all cases-you cant even get a PM MAC test here. Its too bad that this happens
but explains why many people have to travel to see the right surgeon, and even then it may not be the right decision. I'm so sorry Parbie that this has happened to you-xo JKL

Originally Posted by parbie

Thank you Jkl, I appreciate it. I agree with everything you said above.I still believe I have pec minor issues but the tenetomy might not have been the way to go. Sanders did the same thing he def has a cookie cutter approach where he has to do a Scalene block and pec minor block and a new EMG done on everyone. I am lucky about the EMG though, it showed I have positive results on both sides. Kind of similar to Dr Lee situation, wasted my time yet I found out I have the subclavian artery being compressed with the ultrasound he requires for everyone walking through his doors. However I am sure I would have gotten that done with Donahue anyway, only thing is I found that out ahead of time and it will help me (and scare me blah) and definitely help Donahue during my visit with him.

Originally Posted by fdupshoulders

Did the ultrasound show compression with your arms down or only raised?

Originally Posted by parbie

Only raised at 180 degrees.

Originally Posted by fdupshoulders

Full occlusion in the ultrasound? As in the artery has 0 velocity? Parbie is that your case?

For me,

left side: arms down-156 cm/sec, arms up-342 cm/sec with some visual narrowing of vessel

right side: arms down - 85cm/sec, arms up-280 cm/sec with some visual narrowing